We recently published a list of Jim Cramer is Talking About These 10 Stocks as Markets Rebound. Since Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) ranks 4th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Jim Cramer in his latest program on CNBC talked about the latest rebound in the markets followed by a major selloff on Monday, saying we can “fret” about the interest rates, jobs market or mortgage rates, or we can just buy the stocks of “tremendous” companies and hold on to them.
“Stock prices have become so dependent on the macro, the carry trade, the Fed chatter, that it’s impossible to give you a pat answer even as I’ve told you over and over again that corporate America is doing much better than anyone would expect at this point in the cycle,” Cramer said.
Cramer lamented yet again that people believe a 25bps decline in interest rates could somehow “motivate” people to increase spending and on these hopes they often buy “phony” ETFs.
Cramer also said that the Fed won’t begin to cut rates until it sees consumers “rebelling” against higher prices forcing companies to roll back price increases to pre-COVID levels. Jim Cramer believes we now have an “empowered consumer” who is willing to make choices and choose options that are cheaper and better.” He said that during the pandemic, amid higher liquidity, people were willing to accept higher prices, but not anymore.
For this article we watched several latest programs of Jim Cramer and picked 10 stocks he’s talking about. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
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Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 79
A caller recently asked Jim Cramer whether he should hold on to Vistra. Cramer said “definitely,” adding that the stock has been one of the “winners” this year.
Cramer quoted a research expert on his team, who said this stock has “no quit it in, it’s just the best.”
Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST) is a power generation company that is also involved in electricity generation and wholesale energy purchases and sales. Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST) has about 5 million customers and operates a 41,000-megawatt portfolio of natural gas, coal, nuclear, and solar assets, as well as battery storage facilities.
Citi recently published a list of utility stocks that it’s bullish on amid the importance of power grids, growth in renewable energy and AI-powered demand. Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST) is one of the stocks Citi likes.
Guggenheim analyst Shahriar Pourreza who holds a Buy recommendation and a Street-high price target of $133 on Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST) thinks VST is a “unicorn” for its portfolio of both gas and nuclear power plants. Pourreza further said in his note to clients that data centers are exploring 24-hour power sources that are clean and “nuclear plants are a very strong avenue for that”, further adding to his thesis for the stock.
Legacy Ridge Capital stated the following regarding Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“One of the sectors we know well which had been out of favor for several years has quickly come into favor: Independent Power Producers (IPPs). We’ve written consistently about NRG and Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) since the 2019 letter, have owned each, or both, since 2018, and invested a meaningful amount of our assets in VST specifically the past few years. Nate and I intend on spending more time in the year-end letter on our updated views on the IPPs and our learnings from the on-going investment, but we were a bit surprised how quickly the narrative around these companies changed. Our Blue Sky 2030 estimates of intrinsic value converged with the share price 6-years before we thought probable. In the 2019 letter, with respect to VST, we wrote:
“Over the next decade management should have close to $15 Billion to deploy to share repurchases. If you assume they have to pay an average price for the stock that’s higher than the current one, and they can only repurchase 60% of shares outstanding instead of the 100% the math implies, FCF per share in 2030 would be $14. That’s a $70 stock at today’s valuation, but a $140 stock at a more reasonable FCF yield of 10%.” And… “The IPPs are un-investable for most money managers, so there we are. When they become investable we’ll probably be long gone.”
Overall Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) ranks 4th on Insider Monkey’s list titled Jim Cramer is Talking About These 10 Stocks as Markets Rebound. While we acknowledge the potential of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than VST but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
